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6 Tech Items for the Classroom!

Projectors

Might still be commonplace in Most schools they are simeple dependable and affordable way of presenting digital content

Laptops and teaching tablets

High end laptops can now be purchased for under €1000. They are ultra portable allow a wide range of connectivity and can be easily moved from class to class

SmartBoards

Widely seen accross more amnd more schools, Smartboards are great tools for engagement. They allow students and teahcers to writee with pens or fingers and are great for engagement

Media PC

Another consideration is a low cost PC used exclusivemy for media back up and storage. It never moves, can be bought for €200 and you would be amazed at how much media schools misplace/lose over the years

Digital Camera

Something that many schools dont have but shold be a ‘must have’. they can be bought for under €500 and are so handy for high quality photos of events for the school website, brochures, emails and more and you can also record and edit high quality video

Sound

With the explosion of the gaming industry you can now get very low cost PC surround sound systems for under €200 from companies like Logitech. Great for your big screen!

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TECH TIPS – Set up a Google ‘Business Profile’ for your school

Setting up a ‘Business Profile’ listing for you school takes only a short amount of time and is one of the first things you should do. It gives all the key details of your school in organic search, helps with SEO and is a professional look for your school.

It is free to set up and shows all the key information pertaining to your school including address, mapping, email, website, opening hours, phone and more. It also allows the school itself to ensure the information is correct and will make your school standout in search.

To set up your school Business Profile simple setup a school gmail account and then click here – https://www.google.ie/business/

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EdTech In Teaching

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What is EdTech?

EdTech is the practice of introducing IT tools into the classroom to create a more engaging, inclusive and individualized learning experience.

EdTech tools are changing classrooms in a variety of ways: making it easy for students to stay engaged through fun forms of learning, assisting teachers with grading tests and holding students accountable for homework.

What Are The Benefits Of EdTech For Students And Teachers?

Students

An influx of technology is opening up new avenues of learning for students of all ages, while also promoting collaboration and inclusivity in the classroom.

Teachers

Teachers are seeing educational tech as a means to develop efficient learning practices and save time in the classroom.

Paperless Classroom

Printing budgets and wasting paper are a thing of the past thanks to edtech. Classrooms that have gone digital bring about an easier way to correct tests, lessen the burden of having to safeguard hundreds of homework files and promote overall greener policies in the classroom.   

Engaging Lessons

EdTech promotes a more interactive classroom.

Apps such as Kahoot! , Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc offer games and activities that the whole class can participate in together.

It introduces fun while learning and the students are more likely to remember the information they were given during the lesson, as opposed to a traditional classroom environment where the students sit in silence and listen to the teacher read from a book.

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Benefits Of STEM Education For Children

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education is an essential part of a young child’s education. But STEM education goes beyond classroom curriculum and teaching children an appreciation for math and technology.

Benefits Of STEM Education For Children

Students learn in a healthy atmosphere during STEM education activities that encourage them to fail and try again. STEM education emphasises the importance of failure as a learning exercise that will encourage students to tolerate errors as part of the learning process. This encourages students to create trust and endurance, enabling them to keep working when the going gets tough.

Students of all skill levels can be taught STEM education. In teams, students of various skill levels will work together to find solutions to problems, document data, give presentations, etc.

Students who understand how to interact with others and succeed in a team-oriented atmosphere are the end product.

STEM learning teaches children about the potential of creativity and technology. So, as students experience emerging technology, they will be prepared to accept them instead of being reluctant or afraid. This will give them the upper hand in the global landscape, as the world is becoming increasingly tech-centred.

By using their critical thinking skills, STEM education teaches students how to solve issues. Students learn how to analyse challenges and then develop a strategy to address them by engaging in STEM learning experiences.

STEM learning promotes imagination and creativity Students are taught skills in STEM education that they can use in the real world. It inspires students to learn as they recognise that the skills they develop will be applied instantly and in ways that positively affect them.

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Benefits Of Technology In The Classroom

The use of technology in the classroom is helpful because it develops critical thinking in students and prepares them for future challenges.

Technology can save much time for students because technical devices such as Tablets, Computers, Laptops and Mobile Devices work faster than traditional methods.

Today the internet has become global and by using it students can be more engaged by joining classes virtually.

Teachers can upload classes into different remote learning applications such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams for students and students can access it anytime and anywhere in the world.

Teachers can use it to teach concepts like they usually would, or to allow students to collaborate and share ideas. This is a good way to keep students interested and involved in class work.

Through technology, it is also easy for parents to keep track of their child’s performance by receiving messages and updates from school through the school’s mobile app.

We believe technology used in teaching is great for students and that it will also lead to a more interactive classroom.

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4 BENEFITS OF THE ICLASS SCHOOL APP

Transform Your School’s Parental Communication With The iClass App!

Below are some of the main reasons we believe the iClass App is essential in day to day school life.

1.  Mobile App for Parents

The iClass App will vastly improve your school’s parental communication. Eliminate SMS costs, reduce printing and engage parents with latest school news, events and free messaging. The iClass platform offers a fully integrated mobile app for parents. There is zero duplication of work and parents can be messaged using free push messaging at any time.

2. Create Forms

Easily create and publish forms for a wide range of uses. Parents can easily complete as they can be pushed out seamlessly via the mobile app and tracked on the Dashboard.

3. Manage Events

Keep on top of events, request student registration and offer payment options with our event management module. Teachers can also micro manage their own events tracking registrations etc.

4. Stay Connected

Create Forms for Consent and Surveys, Digital Permission Slips and School News Publishing to keep parents informed in real time.

In these Covid times our iClass App will provide an invaluable communication tool to drive parental engagement. The app alone provides; – Free messaging, Send files to parents, Absentee notes, News, Event, Permission Slips, Forms and more

For more information or to request a demonstration please contact us.

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Top 3 Microsoft Teams Teaching Tips

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Microsoft Teams is just one of the many online teaching platforms available to help remote learning a whole lot easier.

Not only can teachers use it to recreate the traditional classroom setup with the use of live video lessons, but they can also use it to store documents, share resources, streamline their teaching workflow and be ore interactive with their students.

MICROSOFT TEAMS TEACHING BENEFITS

1. Record Classes To Be Watched Again Later

One major feature of Teams is the ability to record classes during live video meetings and share them around later. This is hugely important as it allows students who may have been absent to catch up, or for present students to go back to particular aspects of the lesson they may wish to review and revise.

2. Take Advantage Of Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard is a freeform digital canvas that easily replicates the blackboard or whiteboard you would use in the classroom. Keep it free-style or transform work into professional looking charts and shapes. Whiteboard works with pen, touch and keyboard.

Teachers can use it to teach concepts like they usually would, or to allow students to collaborate and share ideas. This is a good way to keep students interested and involved in class work.

3. Take Advantage Of App Integrations

Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with other apps allowing teachers to make Class diverse and fun. This is where a large portion of Teams’ creativity comes from, as it really opens up doors in terms of delivering content to students, structuring lessons and setting tasks.

Here are two apps we believe are the most popular within the Teams’ environment.

KAHOOT!

Adding a live game of Kahoot! to your Class is a great way to help students feel more connected and build a strong team spirit.

It’s interactive and invites the fun into learning.

QUIZLET

Quizlet is a popular revision tool for students, with millions of study sets already created by teachers and students covering thousands of popular topics. All of the Quizlet activities, such as Flashcards, Learn, Write, Spell and the Match and Gravity games will run from inside Teams.

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G Suite for Education – What You Need to Know

Some schools and institutions can get access to G Suite for Education free of charge. This article contains everything you need to know about G Suite for education. 

What is G Suite for Education?

G Suite for education is a Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals – a free suite of easy-to-use tools that offer a flexible and secure foundation for learning, collaboration, and communication.  

The G Suite for Education Standard Plan is entirely free. You gain access to standard productivity tools like;

Google Docs. This is a collaborative document tool, or rather a simplified Microsoft Word with advanced collaboration features.

Google Sheets. These are spreadsheets that several users can use simultaneously. Though Google Sheets are not more powerful than Excel, they are more user-friendly.

Google Slides. Basically, these are collaborative presentation tools. 

Google Forms. You can use them to design forms, share, and automatically record the results in Google sheets. 

These four tools are already popular in the business and non-profit world. Furthermore, they are browser-based and support several devices. 

Does my school qualify?

To qualify for Google Workspace for Education, K-12 and higher institutions must be government-recognized, formally-accredited institutions offering nationally and internationally-approved learning at primary, secondary, or third level. For a complete list of requirements, visit Qualifications for Google Workspace for Education. 

The sign-up process

After you submit your request and verify your domain, Google will review your eligibility; approval requests are generally resolved within two weeks. 

What next after approval?

After getting your approval for Google Workspace for Education, you can add users to your domain, set up applications, and access advanced features like mail migration. 

Take advantage of G Suite for Education today to enhance education with free and easy-to-use learning tools. 

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Video Classroom Options for Schools

Video Classroom Options for Schools 

The conventional teaching method alone cannot satisfy all the needs of learners of different age groups. Modern schools need a more flexible and effective technique to complement the traditional teaching method. 

Among the numerous options available, video classrooms have gained significant popularity as they allow students to learn without time and area restrictions. Below are five video classroom options you can use.  

Schoology 

Schoology Learning has offered instructional models for more than a decade, including 100% online courses and blended learning environments. This video classroom option has continued to ensure that all learners have access to the same quality of teaching and learning, irrespective of their social status, special learning needs, or any other factor.

Zoom

Zoom brings students and teachers together to get things done in a frictionless and secure video environment. It offers a suitable communication medium that supports video meetings, voice, webinars, and chat across multiple devices and spaces.  

Blackboard Collaborate 

Blackboard Collaborate is one video classroom option designed specifically for schools that want to deliver a more engaging, personalized, and flexible learning environment for learners. This platform extends beyond traditional web conferencing to achieve the wide-ranging and varied learning needs of modern tutors and students. 

Cisco WebEx Meetings

Learners can meet, connect, and collaborate easily, securely, and reliably on Cisco WebEx Meetings. This video classroom option offers integrated audio, video, and content sharing services on any device. Besides, smart features, like WebEx Assistant and People Insights, bring AI to automate video classrooms and enhance student-teacher relationships. 

Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect brings the real power of virtual to video classrooms. Schools can take advantage of its versatile age to create and conduct stellar video conferences for different grades. Using Adobe Connect can make teaching extraordinary and securely extend your reach far and beyond the ordinary.  

From any corner of the world, you are a click away from your students learning and interacting with their teachers. The above video classroom options offer the opportunity to keep your students focused and engaged with the best quality and real-time virtual classes. 

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5 Tips for Google Classroom

Google Classroom facilitates easy management of student work – announcing, assigning, gathering, and providing feedback. It has saved many tutors’ hours of work. 

Without a steady workflow and a practical strategy, managing digital learning can be burdensome. Google Classroom makes learning more effective only when teachers understand how a digital classroom works and how to use it to the advantage of both learners and teachers. 

Here are 5 tips for Google Classroom to boost your efficiency. 

Use topics to group assignments 

One of the first things you should do to boost your Google Classroom’s efficiency is determining how you want your students to see assignments in the classroom tab. Click “Classwork” to get topics of your class on the left-hand side. Then click “+create” and select “Topic” to set your topics. 

Enable real-time feedback for presentations

Copy and paste evaluation templates into all private comments in preparations for presentations. Remember to use general evaluation spaces, success criteria, star and wish emojis, and others with slots for every learner’s feedback. This will give learners accurate and informative feedback in real-time – as they do their presentations.   

Link multi-step activities in one assignment 

For younger grade learners, having several assignments posted daily is overwhelming to them and their “busy” parents. To avoid this, create a landing page containing all the activities for a particular subject that day. 
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